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I found an ancient VHS copy of The Great Mouse Detective the other day. Watched it, remembered how much I loved it when I was ten...ended up realizing just how great the performance of the late Candy Candido as "Fidget" the peg-legged bat really was. Even though he's a villain -and- not one with much screen time, he's easily the funniest character in the movie.
(I understand the Disney Adventures comic magazine recently retconned Fidget into being misguided and even made him one of the mouse girl's friends! Which considering he kidnapped her is kinda weird. Still, he's easily more appealing than the darn dog they splashed all over the ads and trailers.)
The film is quite entertaining, despite being made on an obviously limited budget. Basil is an engaging character, the climax is exciting...it's based on a book series, there's already sequels ready-made to adapt.
Unlike most of the other Disney films, a continuation wouldn't feel "tacked on". It's obviously only one case out of Basil's career.
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The Great Mouse Detective was the first animated film to use CGI. The budget may have appeared limited, but it was extremely high tech for that period of time.
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The Great Mouse Detective was the first animated film to use CGI.
The first Disney full-length feature, to be more accurate.
The budget may have appeared limited, but it was extremely high tech for that period of time.
High-tech except for certain scenes where you could tell the background characters were just part of the actual background drawing, not animated. Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Sterling: The only Disney animated movie I can recall with a stripper.
Ugh. Worst scene in the movie. The song was terrible, the dancer character had absolutely nothing to do with the movie, and it threw off the film's pacing terribly.
Nah, can't have been because of Bluth. They've done a The Fox and the Hound direct-to-DVD thing.
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Well, you got to look at what else Disney put out during those years. You've got the Black Cauldron and... yeah. From the Jungle Book until Little Mermaid was basically Disney's Dark Ages.
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The ex-Disney animators from the period have some hilarious stories about how decrepit buildings and awful the working conditions were. They weren't even on the same property as the rest of the studio.
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I had a friend whose mom was an animator for Disney and worked there until, oh, right after The Little Mermaid. (She actually worked on TLM. Then she was fired. Not for poor work-- for "restructuring." Which was apparently a euphamism for "you put in so many hours on our big movie your contract says we have to give you a raise and we don't want to.")
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Looking over the list of "Disney Canon" on wiki, I'd say the studio can only hope to break out of an 8 year drought by going back to fairy tales. I think they got a little confused by Tarzan. It was not a fairy tale, and I think it was their biggest hit. I can't account for it either. But I haven't seen any of these movies since 2000 apart from Lilo and Stitch, which I loved but many people did not.
"Bolt" looks like it has potential. But it worked for Buzz Lightyear and Lightning Mcqueen. I'm sensing a theme here.
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quote:Originally posted by pooka: I think they got a little confused by Tarzan. It was not a fairy tale, and I think it was their biggest hit. I can't account for it either.
Even adjusting for inflation, Tarzan's theatrical performance was only decent compared to the returns of say...The Lion King. But that came off of an almost unbroken chain of solid films that were critical and box office gold. Tarzan came in the waning days, when only a few bright spots like The Emperor's New Groove and Lilo and Stitch showed signs of creative life.
(I think Treasure Planet still holds the record for biggest animated box office bomb of all time.)
Enchanted has been a hit. The Princess and the Frog and Rapunzel have both been greenlit. We'll see how they go.
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I thought that movie was a bit scary when I saw it, but I don't know what year it was.
Looking now, I think I must have seen The Great Mouse Detective sometime between 86 and 92 on VHS. I wouldn't have had a clue when it was originally in theaters (was 6 months old) but I think I would have been ok with it by 92 when it was rereleased.
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quote:(I think Treasure Planet still holds the record for biggest animated box office bomb of all time.)
Yes, it does (it made Disney restate their corporate earnings for that year), but make sure you specify 2D animation. In terms of "bomb" it's been neck and neck with Final Fantasy: The Spirit Within.
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The Great Mouse Detective was one of my favorite films. The DVD is actually on my Amazon wish list. *cough* hint hint *cough*. Oh, and gee, my birthday is coming up... in another nine months.
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Yeah. Personally, I think "Tiana" sounds a bit stiff and fussy compared to the original name "Maddy".
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And before someone points out my disdain for Disney's other direct-to-home sequels for their animated classics: That's because most of them were so poorly done in animation and story quality. To say nothing of the bizarre retconning of the various everything-tied-up happy endings in order to create a flimsy premise for said sequel.
"Oh, um...Scar had a whole bunch of evil lioness wives on HIS SIDE! You just, uh, never saw them! And they were exiled! And one of them happened to have a son who looks like Scar but ISN'T his son! So it's totally NOT incest when he woos Simba's daughter! ...You're not buying this, are you?"
In contrast, The Great Mouse Detective would require no such retconning...both the source material and the coda of the film announce that Basil will have many more adventures. Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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Yes, editorials and the blog-o-sphere jumped on Maddy as "racist" because the character is African American.
Come to think of it, some of the Disney Princesses have very questionable names. "Snow White"...obviously. "Cinderella"...because she's nothing but her domestic duties!
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Still, he's easily more appealing than the darn dog they splashed all over the ads and trailers.)
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